Is Donald Trump the ”Duck Dynasty” Version of Ronald Reagan?

Wednesday, 11 May 2016 00:00
Written by
The Daily Take Team By The Daily Take Team, The Thom Hartmann

The most popular take on Donald Trump is that we’ve never seen anything like him before. But here’s the thing: We have seen something like Trump before — we saw it with Ronald Reagan.

Now, there are obviously some big surface-level differences between Reagan and Trump. Reagan’s public persona was cool, calm and collected; Trump’s is … well, the exact opposite. Reagan had years of political experience before he ran for president; Trump has none. Reagan also was also deeply religious, or at least “spiritual” (he didn’t go to church); Trump, I don’t think, has ever had a spiritual thought in his life.

But if you ignore those obvious differences and focus on how Trump is running and framing his campaign, you’ll see that he’s doing the exact same thing Reagan did, only in a style more appropriate for today. In 1980, Republican voters liked button-down politicians; today, they’re looking for something more “down-home” and unrefined. Trump, arguably, is the Duck Dynasty version of Reagan.

2 thoughts on “Is Donald Trump the ”Duck Dynasty” Version of Ronald Reagan?”

Trump is the karma The Establishment deserves. Every election cycle candidates make the same tired promises. After the election they retire to the White House or their gated communities and continue doing the bidding of their big donors, including Wall Street and the corporate world. The ones who have been left behind for years are getting revenge by supporting Trump.